Month: February 2010

A FEW pennies for John Mulligan’s mind 40 seconds into this All-Ire- land semi-final. His team are down a man, but not just any man. It’s his own flesh and blood, his son Brian whose wild lunge at Shane Hickey has made Portlaoise men everywhere see red.

Surely Mulligan’s Snr’s mind turned to mush after what was surely the most controversial and explosive start to an All-Ireland Club game in the competition’s 40-year history.

By half-time Mulligan Snr moves to remonstrate with the Sligo referee, but by full-time he’s nothing to say to him anymore. Happy days say mem- bers of the Fourth Estate — maybe he’ll get his retaliation via the pages of the press, both local and national.

Well John, what about that? Not the result but the sendings off.

We expect him to let rip, he does to an extent, but it’s not the revolution

we re expecting.

“The sendings off had a huge im- pact. The first one, the game was on only a few seconds and it was a real sucker blow. I don’t want to go into it too much more but they were crazy, crazy, crazy decisions.

“It was a joke. If the man has a conscience, he won’t sleep for a long time. If he hasn’t a conscience, there won’t be a bother on him.”

It’s as far as he’s prepared to go be- fore he comes back with some more: “Apart from that sending off, when we were trying to get back into the game in the first-half there were a few big handpasses given against us. But I don’t want to take from Kil- murry’s win, but let us just say that the referee’s performance left a lot to oom ee USLO

“Frustration came into it, but Kil- murry came at us in waves when we were down to 14 men. If the sending off had come maybe ten minutes in when the game had settled, we prob-

ably would have been able to deal with it better, but at the start like that it was a real sucker blow and very hard to recover from it.

“That’s sport. That’s life. You just have to get up and get on with it. That’s what makes sport so marvel- renin

That was it — the rest was all about Kilmurry Ibrickane. How great they were and all that. How he was in their corner now.

‘“Kilmurry Ibrickane fully deserved their win on the day. I know a lot of things went against us but that’s a different matter. I hope that Kilmur- ry Ibrickane go on now and win the All-Ireland for themselves and for their local community.

“The spirit they have, they’ve a great bond with the supporters; they’re what the GAA 1s all about and I’m sure they’ll give Clare a great boost if they go on and win an All-Ireland. I really hope they go on and win it now.”

THE barony of Ibrickane has a proud history, but there’ll be no day prouder than St Patrick’s Day when they grace Croke Park on All-Ireland Club final day.

“It’s a dream,” said manager Micheal McDermott after Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final win over Portlaoise in The Gaelic Grounds in Limerick by 1-14 to 0-8.

“It’s a dream this club has had for a long time and now it’s a reality that Croke Park is opening out before us. But we’re not going up to make up the numbers. We’re going there to win the All-Ireland,” he added.

THE intellectual disability services in Clare are under severe pressure as frustrated staff struggle to find enough time to treat patients.

Staff shortages and tight budgets have also resulted in long waiting lists of children hoping to access the Clare Early Intervention Service (CEIS).

In 2005 the Government introduced legislation requiring CEIS to carry out an assessment of needs on children referred to the services within a very tight time frame. With the legislation came the promise of more resources but these have yet to be provided. As a result, clinical staff hired to treat children with intellectual disabilities are spending their time assessing re- ferrals and writing reports.

In a bid to ensure some children were seen by their therapists the Dis- ability Services in Clare were forced to ring-fence therapy time .

The situation is less than ideal with the HSE admitting that it is proving difficult to retain staff. Providing equipment for people with intellectual and physical disabilities has also led to difficult decisions for HSE staff.

Last year just €725,000 was provid- ed for appliances and equipment for people with intellectual and physical and sensory disabilities in the county.

With a specialised wheelchair cost- ing €10,000, and communication devices costing up to €15,000, staff have to prioritise cases for essential devices, leaving many without.

The budget for the Clare Disabil- ity Services for 2009 was just under €26.5 million. Of that €17,140,517 went to the service providers who work with the HSE.

West Clare tackles legal aid bill

Ennis Movieplex back in profit

Expert warned of major flooding

Councillors get hit in the pocket

THE recession is stifling Irish third world charity Bothar’s ability to send Irish cattle to some of the world’s poorest rural communities. The char- ity currently has more than 500 fam- ilies awaiting animals in Rwanda, Albania and Kosovo but, because of a downturn in cattle donations, they do not have enough cattle in stock to meet the demand.

The international development agency normally flies between 400 and 600 cattle out of Shannon Air- port each year. The receiving fami- lies have each qualified for the Both-

ar programme by growing enough fodder to feed the animals over the last nine months.

They are also required to build an appropriate cow house and undergo a training course in cow husbandry.

“This drop-off is probably because of the economic recession. We have noticed in recent months that the flow of heifers has been slowing down. We would like to urge farm- ers to consider donating a heifer to a poor family in the developing world as however bad our circum- stances might be, these people are much worse off altogether,” said Al- lison Mc Namara, Marketing and PR

Manager of Bothar.

“One dairy cow would not change the lives and indeed the future of an entire family here in Ireland. Howev- er, in Our project countries, one good dairy cow can be better than winning the Lotto.

“In fact, receiving a dairy cow does a lot more for our recipient families than providing them with food and income. It goes on to give them a great sense of pride in their work and restores their dignity as human be- ings. It gives them great hope for the future as it will enable them to send their children to school and pay for day to day family necessities.”

The next Bothar airlift 1s scheduled to take place at the end of March and the organisation is asking farm- ers to donate an in-calf dairy heifer. The are also asking the non-farming public to donate the cost of an in-calf dairy heifer or to donate what you can towards this airlift.

Anyone who wishes to donate should contact Maria McCormack at maria@bothar.ie or freephone 1800 PA eee

PEOPLE in north Clare are going back to the future by learning how to use the ancient form of cob building to construct sheds and other struc- ebdeny

Cob building involves mixing clay, straw, sand and water which is then worked into a wall in a proc- ess known as cobbing. The process, which has been used in Clare since pre-historic times, has been regain- ing its popularity in recent times as people look for environmentally- friendly ways of building structures.

This has prompted the Boghill Centre in Kilfenora to begin a new

course on cob building. The course, which begins later this month, will guide people in how to use the tech- nique.

“Cob building is very low-tech, re- quiring only simple tools and a large amount of time. Unlike conventional modern building with heavy cement blocks, cob is a very democratic building material. You can pick up large or small handfuls of the mix- ture meaning that anyone can join in, the elderly, small children, it’s not the exclusive domain of well-mus- cled young men,” said Kim Harrison from the Boghill Centre.

“The really nice thing about this material is that it is easily sculpted,

so you don’t need to have any hard edges and space-wasting corners. Your creativity 1s unleashed as you shape an_ aesthetically pleasing structure, curving and undulating in whatever way you wish.”

Besides being an inexpensive way of building, cob also provides sound insulation, 1S non-toxic and non-al- lergenic.

“Not only does it require little ener- gy to construct compared to modern building methods and materials, but sourcing the materials locally means it has a very low environmental im- pact,” continued Kim.

“The thick walls, usually around 24cm, have a high thermal mass –

this means they have the ability to store heat within the wall and release it very slowly. This makes cob build- ings easy to keep warm in winter and cool in summer. Heat is soaked up by the wall in the daytime, travelling at one inch per hour, then continues its journey through the wall heating the inside air during the night, leaving the walls cool again for the follow- TU NTSaKO Ne

“The combination of cob and pas- sive solar heating as heat from sun- light entering through large south- facing windows can create a house that requires little additional heat- rhea

Visit www.boghill.com for details.

ORGANISERS of the Clare Burren Marathon Challenge are aiming to top 2,000 participants for this year’s event – which would make it one of the largest adventure marathons ever to take place in Ireland.

Detail of this year’s event, which is organised by the Ballyvaughan/ Fanore Walking Club, were an- nounced last week with May 22 be- ing pencilled in as the date for the third running of the competition.

The event will also see timing chips being offered to everyone who takes part over the age of 16. Every- one who finishes the marathon with a chip will receive an official text telling them their exact finishing time minutes after they complete No OTE KoIOTXeR

“We get a lot of people back year after year and this new chip will al- low these people to get their time texted right to their mobile after the race. It’s the usual thing, people would be trying to better their time from other years,’ said organiser Kevin McCormick.

“We are hoping to get more than 2,000 people to take part this year. It would be great going if that hap- pens but that is our hope and expec- tation. We had almost 1,700 people taking part last year which was al-

most double what we had in the first year.”

Over the last few years, the Clare Burren Marathon Challenge has pro- vided a major early season boost for the tourism industry in north Clare. This year, the challenge will once again run in tandem with the Burren in Bloom Festival, which has itself become a major tourism boost for north Clare.

“We get people from all over tak- ing part. We have a lot coming from England and America and a lot from Germany and Holland as well. A lot of these people just happened to be in the area when the marathon took place in previous years and now they are coming back each year to take part. They bring back more friends each year and it grows then by word of mouth,” continued Kevin.

“It’s a massive tourism boost for the area. And it is well needed, es- pecially the way things are going at id otomsneKeyee ley 0 line

The walk will also take in some of the most dramatic scenery in Europe and includes portions on road, green road and Burren trail. This year’s event is being supported by the Logues Lodge, Clare Spring Water and the Clare Sports Partnership.

For more information check out www.clareburrenmarathonchal- lenge.com.